Sweeping and clearing of paths, lawns and the like generally involves the gathering of leaves, paper and similar debris from an expanse of terrain, made up of lawn, grass, gravel or other surfaces of a compliant and movable nature. The terrain often includes areas of hard surface, paths, concrete, paving etc and the most frequently used tools include brooms, rakes and the like. In addition to such traditional sweeping tools, a range of powered blowers and vacuum systems are attracting increased use with a corresponding increase in noise and air pollution associated with such powered tools. In addition to all the above, some unique systems have been developed involving the careful and selective gathering of debris using innovative mechanics. This selective gathering of such debris from such surfaces can be accomplished by the use of spikes which pierce a wide range of debris where the spikes readily transverse or enter the surface of the terrain thereby picking up such piercable debris without disturbing the terrain.
Such mechanisms are known and incorporated in various debris collecting devices as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,451,488, 4,939,406, 5,274,989 and 5,743,076. Whilst such devices employ a fundamentally sound collecting mechanism they all suffer from drawbacks in the debris removal and collection mechanisms, particularly in the break up of debris during collection which makes complete gathering difficult. One object of the invention is to provide an improved debris collection device.